Destroyer is the vehicle of Dan Bejar, he of the bizarre, affected voice and cryptic lyrics, perhaps better known as the guy who writes the three less good songs on every New Pornographers album. Those songs are certainly nothing like what appears on this record, a dense, confusing work--the album it most evokes for me is the Fiery Furnaces'
Blueberry Boat, and while it is neither as poppy or as complex as that one it shares the ambition to create multipart, 6+ minute pop songs. The pop song format is not naturally conducive to extended track lengths, and so what both of these bands did was either stick several songs together in one or go the Hey Jude route and turn it into a campfire singalong. The problem here is while the melodies themselves are attractive and inviting they get lost in the overambitious arrangements and the whole thing starts to feel a bit clinical and cold. Bejar also has the annoying tendency to start scatting in every single song, pumping out "la la la"s and "na na na"s so often you want to reach into your computer and strangle him. He uses this technique so often it seems to be a function of writer's block--that he's just tossing in na-na-nas every single time he can't think of anything else to say. So this is less a case of an album being bad than being unstrung by its ambition--while it's certainly preferable to something boring and safe, it doesn't really work, and I can't imagine anyone really listening to this kind of thing for pleasure. Impressive and cold.
MY RATING:
6.3
Destroyer - "Looters' Follies"
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